Tehelka sex row snowballs

New Delhi: The National Commission for Women has asked the Press Council of India to send an “action taken” report against Tehelka’s editor-in-chief.

The scandal has also cost Tejpal membership of the Prasar Bharati board.

The Tehelka management, now headed by managing editor Shoma Chaudhury, has also come under fire and is being accused of trying to hush up the matter. Tejpal had announced Wednesday night that he was “recusing” from his job for six months after an email by the woman journalist of his magazine alleging sexual assault on her became public.

Under pressure, the Tehelka management on Thursday evening set up a sexual harassment complaints panel headed by leading women’s activist Urvashi Butalia to probe the allegations.

The Tehelka management had initially tried to play down the incident, claiming it was “an internal matter” and saying that the woman in question was “satisfied” with Tejpal stepping down for six months. But this began to change on Thursday morning as the social media exploded with outrage and the victim refuted Ms Chaudhury’s claim that she was “satisfied” with the action taken by the management.

“That I am satisfied with Tehelka’s action is false,” she said, and expressed strong disappointment at the way the magazine had handled the matter.

The woman journalist, who was with Tejpal at Tehelka’s “Think” festival in Goa recently, was allegedly sexually assau-lted by him twice inside a lift at a five-star hotel. She had complained to Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury that Tejpal pulled her into a lift at a hotel in Goa about 10 days back on two successive days to assault her.

Mr Tejpal’s political clout appeared to be fizzling out with both the Congress and the BJP, as well as other outfits, speaking in one voice, demanding action against him.

NCW member Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar said Tejpal should be charged with rape.

Activists argued that under the new anti-rape law, Tejpal’s action “is deemed as rape”.

Tejpal’s luck appeared to have run out as outrage continued to swell over the sexual assault allegations since Wednesday night.

Goa CM Manohar Parikkar held a meeting with top civil and police officials in Panaji and ordered a preliminary investigation into the incident. The Goa police has not ruled out the possibility of taking suo moto cognisance of the incident, and proceeding on that basis. It was also planning to take a statement from the woman journalist, the victim, who is based in Mumbai.
In a statement, Editors’ Guild president N. Ravi said the sexual assault allegations are “on the face of it, shocking and shameful”.

He added, “The conduct that has been alleged would constitute grave sexual assault at the very least, taking advantage of the authority and power of the perpetrator within the media organisation.”
Other journalists’ for-ums also asserted that the full force of the law must be brought in to the investigation and prosecution of the incident.

Mr Tejpal, in his letter to Ms Chaudhury, had referred to the incident as a “bad lapse of judgement, an awful misreading of the situation”. He then said he was, therefore, “offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for the next six months”. Criticising Tejpal’s so-called “atonement”. the Editors’ Guild said: “Self-proclaimed atonement and recusal for a period are hardly the remedies for what the allegations show to be outright criminality.”

Let Tejpal atone in jail, says BJP

The BJP on Thursday demanded that Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal be arrested after lodging of FIR against him for allegedly sexually assaulting his colleague.

“I would want the Union home minister to ensure lodging of an FIR and immediate arrest of Tejpal,” BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said.

Tehelka, of which Tejpal is the founder editor, had done the 2001 sting operation in which the then BJP President Bangaru Laxman was caught accepting bribe.

The party on Thursday accused the media of adopting double standards in its coverage of the case of alleged snooping on a woman by Narendra Modi government in 2009 and Tejpal’s case.
Ms Lekhi alleged that the incident of “virtual rape” of a journalist by Tejpal was being “blacked out” by media and wondered why the National Commission for Women, Press Council of India and other agencies were silent.

“The victim and her father as well as the criminal are from the same fraternity (media). A blanket is sought to be put on the case,” she said.

BJP alleged that this is a wake up call for all. “A political vendetta is taking place. The involvement of Congress and its surrogates in the matter needs to be looked into...,” Ms Lekhi added.
Hitting out at Tejpal, BJP alleged that through his “atonement” letter, he has sought a “paid holiday” of six months.